What is flat hierarchy?

Flat hierarchy is a concept in personal epistemology: Simpler hierarchies with fewer levels are easier to navigate and maintain.

Example: A team lead inherits a project wiki organized seven levels deep: Company > Division > Department > Team > Project > Sprint > Task. Finding anything requires navigating through five intermediate folders, each demanding a decision about which subfolder to enter. She restructures it into three levels: Team > Project > Pages. Every page is now reachable within two clicks. Documentation usage triples in the first month — not because the content changed, but because the hierarchy stopped punishing people for trying to find things. The information was always there. The depth was hiding it.

This concept is part of Phase 14 (Hierarchy and Nesting) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for hierarchy and nesting.